An attempt to discuss every single product available for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game.

Sunday, 16 April 2017

The Gong Farmer's Almanac 2016 Vol 5

The 2016 Gongfarmer’s Almanac: Volume 5: Drop-In Adventures is a Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Zine written, illustrated, and produced by the DCC RPG G+ community under the creative vision and direction of Doug Kovacs, Harley Stroh, Jon Hershberger, Marc Bruner, Matt Hildebrand, and Michael Jones, under the rubric of the Gongfarmer's Local #282.

This volume was written by Steven Bean, Marc Bruner, bygrinstow, Marzio Muscedere, Ron Tilton, and James V. West. Art is by Doug Kovacs, Marc Radle, Danny Prescott, and William McAusland.

Disclosure: I am credited as an editor.

Where the previous volume focused on complete adventures, this volume focuses on areas or events that can be dropped into an ongoing Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, session, or campaign.

Let's take a look.

The Forgotten Library of the Toadfiend: Author Marzio Muscedere offers a "single room encounter for any dungeon or dire temple dedicated to the Evil Lord of Amphibians". Although it is a single room, there is enough to interest players here for hours.

Tzolk’in Crawl: This mini-dungeon, by Marc Bruner, is inspired by the Mayan calendar, and offers a challenging puzzle with potential for combat as well as profit (if the PCs are daring enough to offend the gods). The area is Meso-American themed, offering both information on gods and a few choice monsters for the discerning judge.

There is a Meso-American themed lost race (the Xilonoc) in the Memories of the Toad God series, which this location could easily be tied into. Crawling Under a Broken Moon also makes some use of Meso-American mythology, and has a planned expansion with the Umerican Survival Guide kickstarter.

Big Trouble in Little Punjar: Written by bygrinstow off of an idea by Terry Olson, this is a low-level adventure or a 0-level funnel loosely based off of the film Big Trouble in Little China.

The Forgotten Hall: This short adventure sees the PCs discover a cyclopean ruin. The judge must have a copy of The Monster Alphabet and The Dungeon Alphabet, and I would strongly recommend rolling ahead of time and developing statblocks for speedier play. R.S. Tilton is the author.

Crawling Through a Hell of One’s Own Making: Steve Bean offers a "Meta-Encounter" where the PCs gain a second change to save a fallen comrade from the lands of the dead. Thoughtful and evocative, this could easily be an ongoing part of any Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign.

Beyond the Portal Under the Stars: Bygrinstow supplied a toolkit for creating a follow-up adventure to The Portal Under the Stars, where the PCs can both find wood from a dryad's tree and ignite it with the spark of a living fire.

Finally, the volume is finished with three copies of the same Character Record Sheet by James V. West (sadly without attribution to the creator).

Disclosure

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